Caps VS Sabres, Mike Richards Makes Team Debut

The Caps left Washington DC on a high with five wins in a row and a grand celebration with their captain, Alex Ovechkin, and his 500th goal. Sprinkle in the two goals and one assist by Evgeny Kuznetsov and the fun of watching Tom Wilson and Karl Alzner score, the team continues to stun and entertain the league. The Caps are going for a third win against Buffalo.

Mike Richards is in the lineup in favor of Brooks Laich. We will finally get to see his progress and how he meshes with the team.

The Buffalo Sabres on the other hand come home after ending their winning streak of three games having been dealt a loss by the Boston Bruin. They also lost Zemgus Girgensons to an upper body injury which removes him from tonight’s game. The team held an option morning skate with both goalies this morning.

After the last game Braden Holtby said, “We are pretty relentless as a team.” We can expect a physical game Washington scored seven goals against the Buffalo in their first matchup Kuzy is likely to have another great showing—as he did the last time the two teams met. Buffalo for its part just needs a win at this point as they just to keep out of bottom place in the league.

Kuzy all smiles with his great success!!

GAME TIME IS 5pm

Your Projected Lineup for Tonight

Michael Latta back in the line-up tonight

Ovechkin Backstrom Oshie

Burakovsky Kuznetsov Williams

Chimera Johansson Wilson

Sill Richards Latta

Defenseman Parings

Alzner Niskanen

Schmidt Orlov

Ness Chorney

Braden Holtby in the net.

Kuznetsov and Backstrom lead the team in overall points at 41 each.

Ovechkin leads the team with 26 goals. Kuznetsov follows with 15 goals.

Injury Report and Team Scratches

Jay Beagle: last time the Caps played Buffalo, Jay left with an injured hand from which he continues to recover. We don’t expect him for another four or five weeks. Even Beags is skating now and working with the trainers before practice starts.

John Carlson is still day-to-day. He is skating before team practice. Should be back before the All Stars. He did not travel with the team to Buffalo.

Brooks Orpik is on the Long-term Injured Reserve list for an undisclosed injury. Like John, should be back before the All Stars. He did not travel with the team to Buffalo.

Stanislav Galiev- Healthy Scratch

Brooks Laich- Healthy Scratch

The Sabres: May have game-time changes.

Kane O’Reilly McGinn

Gionta Eichel Reinhart

Foligno Larsson Varone

Moulson Schaller Legwand

Defensemen Pairings

Gorges Ristolainen

Pysyk Bogosian

Weber Franson

Goalies: Chad Johnson likely to get the start. Robin Lehner backing him up. We have reports on both goalies. We will see at 5 who is in the net for sure.

O’Reilly leads the team with 37 points and Ristolainen following with 28 points.

O’Reilly also leads the team in goals at 17 followed by Eichel with 13.

More Milestones Coming:

Jason Chimera is ONE assist away from an NHL career 200 assists.

Michael Latta is two games away from 100 NHL games played

Karl Alzner, the Iron Man, is three points away from 100 NHL points and five games short of passing Bob Carpenter (422) for the longest consecutive games played in franchise history.Next Games and Practices